Poster Abstracts

Name/Affiliation:  Luca Ricci (Caltech)

Title:  Accretion disks around Brown Dwarfs and Very Low Mass stars: the ALMA view

Abstract:
Accretion onto very low mass stars and brown dwarfs is mediated by young disks made of gas and dust. Observations of these disks can shed light on the physical mechanisms proposed to form these cool objects, as well as on the potential of finding rocky or giant planets around them. I will present recent results from an ongoing ALMA and CARMA project aimed at investigating the physical structure of these disks, the early stages of solids growth toward the formation of planetesimals in these systems, their mass function and rotation curve. Our results show that dust growth to mm/cm pebbles is as efficient in these systems as in more massive disks around young stars, and the disk radii are also similar to those found for T Tauri stellar disks. The ALMA easy detection of CO molecular gas in 3 out of our 4 disks show the potential of ALMA to constrain the rotation curve for these disks and estimate dynamical masses for single young brown dwarfs. I will discuss the implications of these findings on models of solids evolution in protoplanetary disks, on the main mechanisms proposed for the formation of brown dwarfs and very low mass stars, as well as on the potential of finding rocky and giant planets around these very low mass objects.